Although I'll say that Bush should be screened for Mental Health, is he really trying to get a measure through which would screen all children (or all US citizens, depending on which web site you read) for mental health? Lots of web sites are talking about it, but I haven't found any reputable media source with any related information.

It's not a hoax at all, but possibly overstated. It appears that the President may simply be calling for more mental health screening instead of mandatory and universal mental health screening. This is one point on a much larger report on mental health care reform. The actual goals that relate to screening, quoted verbatim from the report, are as follows:

4.1 Promote the mental health of young children.
4.2 Improve and expand school mental health programs.
4.3 Screen for co-occurring mental and substance use disorders and link with integrated treatment strategies.
4.4 Screen for mental disorders in primary health care, across the life span, and connect to treatment and supports.

If you want more details about the this, here's where you can get it straight from the government reports themselves:

Given that the mainstream news media has not been covering this, my guess is that the President isn't pushing too hard to have this implemented.

Hairy Houdini

Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2004 | 06:09 PM

Wrong-O-rama, my friend. Why just this week, my local school district performed suicide intervention screening on all students. Interesting that they choose to do fear effectiveness scoring two weeks before an election, a period that our administration has openly warned as a period of high danger to Americans. The sample screening form included vaporous questions like: "Does your child appear uneasy about world events... Does your child speak of the future in a way that suggests despair?" Your nightmares are here, now, guys. Now.

Ozymandias

Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2004 | 12:55 PM

I had a similar one called "Teen Screen" a few weeks ago. It asked questions like, "Do you take marijuna more than six times a week?", "Do you drink and drive?", and, "Have you commited suicide?" I think they meant attempted suicide.

Ozymandias

Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2004 | 01:00 PM

We had to sign a form to be able to do it, and it said: IF WE FIND ANYTHING, THE AUTHORITIES WILL BE WARNED AND YOU WILL BE GET TREATMENT RIGHT AWAY.

Not at all related, I just wanted to mention it.

Matt

Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2004 | 12:42 PM

"Does your child appear uneasy about world events... Does your child speak of the future in a way that suggests despair?"

Isn't that a *Kerry* campaign slogan?

One year when I was in high school we had two seniors at my school commit suicide within a few months. Just about everyone was stunned by that news, including the faculty. I could see an event like that causing a districtwide suicide intervention screening whether they had any prompting from higher up or not. Screening everyone for suicidal tendancies seems a little bit overreacting, and it could very well have had some connection to the President's goals here.

But I'd think if this was actual election politics they'd make a better effort to tie it in to the election and try to do so in a way that would look more favorable to Bush.

Maegan

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 | 11:44 AM

Teenagers are such downers. When I was in highschool it was so hard to find someone who was 'okay'. They were all so sick of their parents & school...Oh, no. Mommy gave me a curfew I'm just gonna kill myself over it. Losers. I had a curfew, I had tough parents...GET OVER IT. And if ya wanna talk about how tough school was...I was homeschooled for highschool. I never got a break from my mom, unless I was at work. It was no big deal. I knew that in a few years I would probably be begging my parents to let me stay home so I didn't have to pay rent somewhere.

I did have a counselor in middle school that came and got me one day from science. He was asking me about my family life & then he said, "Maegan, are you giving your things away?" I didn't really know what he wanted me to say, so I asked, "Why, do you want some of them?" Well, I guess he was trying to figure out if I was gonna kill myself, because kids who are preparing for that start giving their stuff away, since they won't need it. I never figured out why I was singled out like that.

Hairy Houdini

Posted: Fri Oct 29, 2004 | 05:56 PM

well, i'm not suggesting that mental health amongst students isn't an important issue. I'm just kinda wondering at the logic of screening pre-draft-age students for suicidal tendencies while the goverment tries to scare the beejeezus out of them on a daily basis. Good mental health? Start at the top of the cocoanut pile, and screen the nutjobs running the US.

Randy

Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 | 07:21 PM

I believe it is illegal for the head of state to be 'treated' by a counselor of any type as that could jepardize the nation security.

Randy

Charybdis

Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 | 07:32 PM

Huh? I rather think that it's illegal to prevent anyone, even the president, from seeking any kind of necessary medical treatment he wishes be it physical, mental, or spiritual. I think an unstable, irrational president would be a very dangerous thing.

The rest of the world seems to agree with me on this.

Except for Great Britain.

Damn limeys.

Maegan

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 | 12:57 PM

A few nights ago, I saw on the evening news they were going to do suicide prevention screenings in the local middle/highschools.

Ken Kramer
in Tampa Bay

Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 | 05:53 PM

TeenScreen is no hoax at all. Their plan is to do mental health screening on all children in the United States which will of course result in more kids on mind-altering dangerous drugs.

The testing services are primarily composed of psychologists who are in partnership with psychiatry to label our kids with phony classifications that promote their own business and funding. These labels and disorders are based on voting by committee and have no science--validity and reliability.

Don't let them test your kids and label them for life. You will also find that everything your kid and you reveal may eventually be used against you and literally wreck your child's opprtunities for his/her future. It happens all the time, especially for someone wishing to secure a job in certain industries or government service. Do visit my logs related to this subject on the New Civilization Network - http://www.newciv.org

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Note: This thread is located in the Old Forum of the Museum of Hoaxes.